Supreme Court: "No Additional Allowance for Organized Crime Charges During Fraud Trial"

[Asia Economy Reporter Baek Kyunghwan] The Supreme Court has ruled that if a voice phishing criminal's fraud crime has already been prosecuted, charges of organizing a criminal organization cannot be added during the trial process.

On the 24th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice No Jeonghee) overturned the original ruling that sentenced Lee Mo and five others, who were indicted on charges including fraud, to prison terms ranging from 2 years and 6 months to 4 years and 6 months, and remanded the case to the Seoul Southern District Court.

Lee and others were indicted on charges of embezzling or attempting to embezzle hundreds of millions of won from victims by dividing roles such as call center counselors, recruitment and management of caller ID holders, personal information database, and fund management under the direction of a Chinese voice phishing organization. They induced people who called after receiving random text messages such as "If you rent a check card, we will pay a usage fee" or "Check card rental" to send check cards with passwords recorded.

The first trial sentenced them to prison terms ranging from 2 years and 6 months to 3 years and 6 months. Subsequently, charges of organizing, joining, and participating in a criminal organization were added through an indictment amendment. However, the defendants argued, "The voice phishing organization in which the defendants were active is not a criminal organization, and the defendants never organized, joined, or participated in a criminal organization with such awareness," and "The indictment amendment should be disallowed in the appellate court, or a not guilty verdict should be rendered for the amended charges."

The appellate court ruled, "If the amended charges share the same basic facts as the original charges, even if it is not different from filing additional new charges, the indictment can be amended in the appellate court," and "The basic factual identity between the fraud committed in the first trial and the additional charges of organizing, joining, and participating in a criminal organization in the appellate trial is recognized." Lee and others were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 2 years and 6 months to 4 years and 6 months.

However, the Supreme Court stated, "It is not permissible to add charges of organizing, joining, and participating in a criminal organization that do not share the same facts as the fraud charges," and overturned and remanded the case, stating that the lower court misapplied the law regarding the identity of charges and indictment amendments, which affected the judgment.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.